Guwahati, Feb 7 (PTI) The Assam cabinet has directed the police to register a case against senior Congress leaders Debabrata Saikia, Bhupen Kumar Borah and Mira Borthakur for alleged indecent gestures towards women during a recent rally, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.
“The gesture was a collective insult to women of Assam. I have seen their body language, it was so bad. No normal politician or gentlemen will gesture to any woman in that manner,” Sarma said, briefing reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting.
He said the cabinet has decided to direct the director general of police to register a criminal case against them under appropriate legal provisions.
Sarma, talking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme earlier in the day, had said the Congress should expel Borah, a former state party president, and Saikia, the leader of the opposition in the assembly, for “disrespecting women”.
Borthakur is the president of the state Mahila Congress, and was present with the other two leaders during the rally.
Sarma claimed that a hand gesture was made in Guwahati a couple of days ago from atop a bus being used by the Congress for its ongoing state-wide rally.
Claiming that it was a gesture towards all Assamese girls and women, he said, "If the party doesn't expel them, I don't think they will be able to go anywhere. It is about all women, not about any 'jati' (community)."
The CM also said that he has asked officials concerned to send the video clip to the women's commission so that cognisance is taken of it.
"I can't even imagine a leader of the opposition, a former party president making such gestures, that too, when Mira Borthakur was with them," he said.
Dismissing the allegation, Saikia said the chief minister should concentrate on the “many problems” the state is facing.
"I don't know how he can say something like this. I don't know what he keeps thinking. Nothing like what he is trying to say had happened. There was some conversation going on, and I had only laughed," Saikia said.